ABC News Exclusive: Study Shows Money Flooding into Campaigns for State Judgeships

[sabra]

Source: ABC News

Justices Ginsburg, O'Connor Say Fundraising Could Corrupt System, Reform is Needed
By MATTHEW MOSK


March 17, 2010—

In rare public remarks last week, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the money involved in electing judges remains one of the most pressing concerns facing the American court system. And she joined her former colleague, Sandra Day O'Connor, in calling for reform.

"If there's a reform I would make, it would be that," Ginsburg said when asked about the issue at the National Association of Women Judges Thursday night.

Yet money has continued to pour into the campaign accounts of state judges around the country, and ABC News has obtained an advanced copy of a study showing the amounts involved are unprecedented.

In the past decade, candidates for state judgeships raised more than $206 million, more than double the $83 million judges raised in the 1990s, according to the soon-to-be released study by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and Justice at Stake, two non partisan groups that advocate for reforming the judicial selection process.

Three of the last five state Supreme Court election cycles topped $45 million. And judges shattered fundraising records in all but two of the 21 states with contested Supreme Court elections in the last ten years, the report found.

"State judicial elections have been transformed," the report says, and the money involved has created "a grave and growing challenge to the impartiality of our nation's courts."

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/study-shows-money-flooding-campaigns-state-judgeships/story?id=10120048

[madrchsod]

1. ya these guys ruled on that just in time....

welcome to the oh so friendly face of fascism...and who said it could`t happen here in the world`s greatest democracy!

[defendandprotect]

11. And wasn't it said it would come "waving the flag and the Bible" . . .???

[Hosnon]

2. Simply put, judges should never be elected (but nor should they have lifetime appointments).

Appointments for 10-20 years at a time would probably do the trick.

[benld74]

3. When Fascism comes it will be wrapped in a flag,,,,

[alp227]

4. Been that way a long time; Bill Moyers found that 21 states have this issue

See the Feb 19 "Justice for Sale" segment revisiting a 1999 episode of Frontline.

[Dinger]

5. Tell Me About It. Wisconsin's Been Fucked Twice In A Row

Bad.

[glinda]

13. The Conservatives are pushing hard in MN.

[perdita9]

6. Justice for Sale in the US

Thanks to John Roberts and his Gang of Four!

[RedCloud]

7. In my community we just vote for the one that did not get early campaign signs everywhere,

Obvious Republican stooge.

[Jakes Progress]

8. And SCOTUS just ruled that corporations

will be able to fund the judges what will rule on their culpability in legal cases. Who needs to buy a congressman when you can own the judges that will interpret the law those congressmen pass?

[applegrove]

9. This terrifies me.

[Lorien]

10. You and me both

Very, very bad news indeed.

[No Elephants]

12. So, where's the Congressional resolution to amend the Constitution?

Get her done before the damned mid-terms, for pity's sake.

And hit voting machines while you're at it.

Jeebus!